Independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has urged the United Nations to send peacekeepers to Gaza to help protect and distribute food amid ongoing Israeli bombardment and rising alarm over hunger and malnutrition. In an overnight email to supporters, Lambie framed the proposal as a “protective mission” and said that blue-helmet troops could be deployed with the sole task of securing food aid and ensuring it reaches the people who need it. She asserted that UN authorisation would be required and argued that, because the mission would be a protection operation rather than peacekeeping or peace enforcement, the international community should have no hesitation in backing it.

Lambie said she would back the idea with a public advertising push in newspapers and online, and would seek donations to fund the campaign. She invoked the plight of civilians, noting that children are starving and mothers are sobbing because they cannot feed their children or themselves. She stressed that safeguarding aid deliveries is essential to getting relief to those in need. UN peacekeepers have a long history of assisting humanitarian work, including providing security for the delivery of aid, and Lambie argued that blue helmets could protect Gaza aid convoys and help ensure their proper distribution.

She did not spell out a timetable or a detailed mandate and did not indicate how the mission would be operationalised, but framed the call as a practical measure to alleviate humanitarian suffering with international legitimacy. The proposal would require UN authorization and broad support from the international community, given the gravity of the crisis facing Gaza civilians and the urgent need to get aid through.

Lambie’s appeal underscores ongoing international concern about aid access to Gaza as bombardment continues and humanitarian agencies warn of mounting hunger, reminding readers that the issue extends beyond domestic politics into global humanitarian obligations.

Source: Full Article The Guardian